Food Choices

I think I get it now. I grew up being limited on foods (CERTAIN foods), and I ended up over-indulging in things to extremes in my adult years (where no one could tell me how much or what to have). When I made the switch to a radical unschooling lifestyle, I decided to embrace food choice -- I could eat anything I wanted without guilt. Wow.

At first, I found myself eating cookies and ice-cream like it was going to disappear off the shelf! Well, for the first week... I kinda felt like crap when I ate like that. Today, about 1 and 1/2 years after making the decision to have true food choices, I find myself getting my fill much much sooner. A box of cookies that may not have made it through the night have sat on the shelf for a week, and not because I forgot, but because I only needed maybe 1 or 2 a day to get my fill.

Even the kids will drop a piece of candy for some grapes (Najaia on Valentine's Day), have been known to bypass popsicles they know are in the freezer and know they can have to ask for an orange (Noble about a year ago), and scream with excitement that I bought broccoli (Kass practically everytime we go shopping). Cookies last a week on the shelf. Ice-cream sits in the freezer. A chocolate bar is forgotten about on a counter. My son wants avocado sushi. My baby wants sandwich meat and cheese rolled up together. My oldest wants cooked spinach with olive oil and lemon pepper :))

Today, not only does some stuff stay on the shelf longer, but I feel less inclined to even eat it (or buy it). Food choices don't REALLY mean I can eat a box of cookies in one sitting and feel as good as if I'd picked a fruit salad (well, some days that's not entirely true, actually -- some days a HUGE bowl of ice-cream is way more nourishing than a fruit and yogurt smoothie). Food choice mean I can listen to my body, not get tangled up in the emotional knots concerning food.

I just feel better when I eat certain things. And now that I don't have the voices of my well-intentioned parents or some general "expert" speaking so loudly in my head about what I "need" to eat or what I "should" or "SHOULDN'T" eat, I can hear the soft still voice inside me that speaks to me about what I REALLY want, and I can feel my body's reaction to foods. And when I reach my hand into the fridge, I usually opt for things like organic yogurt and granola for breakfast instead of a big bowl of ice-cream or cookies, just because of how my body will feel after I am done. The kind of fuel I fill my body with impacts the performance I get out of it. I can finally feel it.

THAT is my barometer now, not an "expert" voice telling me what to do. I have a voice. And now I can hear it. And, btw, that voice is good for other things in life, too.

p.s. - if you want to read more about my food journey, please feel free to read this and this :) They have the same simple title, but are different posts :)

This is me connected to all that is around me :)

(If you know who to contact about this picture I found, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!)